Now that you are fully living your first trimester of pregnancy you will start to feel less pleasant sensations. As you remember, in the second trimester you felt exceptionally good and you were enjoying your pregnancy, bu now your feelings start to be more intense. You start to feel heavy and you are impatient for your pregnancy to be over, but you also feel apprehensive about the upcoming labor. You are excited and nervous at the same time and these emotions run inside your head. Everything may seem to run out of your control. You life, your body and your emotions seem to be unstable and this feeling can be unsettling. Until now you're used to plan your life, your day, and carrying out these plans, you planned your pregnancy and you expected that it would go in a certain way. But in many ways pregnancy is unpredictable so you should not feel frustrated if things didn't happen as you planned. It is hard to control the emotional experience of being a new mom. It is a great transition in your life and is quite normal that you feel anxious about the birth, parenting and other issues that are taking place in your life. Don't punish yourself, slow down, rest a lot and try to enjoy what his happening with you but without gret concerns. And don't neglect that your mate is also experiencing some emotional changes too. He may not be as expressive as you but that doesn't mean that he isn't happy or involved with the arrival of the new baby.
The Baby // Developments By the end of this month your baby will weight about 4 to 5 pounds. He has grown quite dramatically since the last month and for the next two months he will be gaining "brown" fat (needed to maintain body heat) and putting on some more weight. Your baby's brain is functioning quite quickly and his physical features are well developed. His lungs still need some time to fully mature. He his growing so fast that he is running out of space to turn somersaults, so probably he will remain head-down position. In the vertex position, his head stretches the cervix and molds o feet between the pelvic bones. But if you baby remains in a in a breech position, your practitioner may attempt to perform an "external intervention", a method to turn the baby into head-down position. This intervention is usually done in the 37th week and avoids the problem of your baby become trapped by the head behind your pelvis' bones. The practitioner, with the guidance of an ultrasound machine, applies a series of specific hand movements to your belly. Normally, in 50 per cent of cases this procedure is a success and the baby turns and stays in the vertex position. But if "external intervention" doesn't work the practitioner may feel that the safest option to deliver the baby will be a cesarean section.
Your Body // Changes At this stage your body is working very hard to provide oxygen and the needed nutrients to your baby, so you may feel more tired and even more sleepy. The increased size of your body may also be affecting your mobility. The prelabor, Braxston-Hicks contractions may be more frequent and your vaginal discharges may become thicker and whiter. You are day by day near the end of pregnancy and your body reflects it. Some women experience more discomforts at this stage, but don't worry much, they will not last long.
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